Another major school shooting today ... Newtown, Conn

Yes indeed in the US guns being used as a tool for murder/suicide is far more common then in countries with few guns but dead is dead no matter what the tools happen to be.

The data in the WaPost article is from 2005. I posted data from 2009.
But you really need to learn that using data from one year doesn't really tell us much since it can be an anomaly.

That's a convincing argument. Your stiffs are just as dead as our stiffs.

I never thought of that.

....guns are similar to the ring in the lord of the ring evil in itself and turning the owner into a killer by it very existence.

You've got a gun, Gunga's got a gun and Oralboy's got a gun.

What more evidence do you need that in America, any ******* idiot can get hold of a gun?

Federal law requires that individuals seeking to buy a gun at a licensed dealer pass a background check to prevent criminals, domestic abusers, the seriously mentally ill, and other dangerous people from purchasing firearms. Since the NICS instant background check system was implemented in 1998, background checks have denied transfers to over 1.7 million prohibited purchasers.

However, there is a gaping hole in our laws that allow criminals and others to go to “private sellers” at gun shows, on the internet, and elsewhere to buy guns with no background check, no questions asked. Commonly referred to as the private sales loophole or “gun show loophole,” this failure in our public safety policy has allowed up to 40 percent of all gun transfers to take place without a background check.

In practice, this means that those wishing to purchase a gun have two easily available options – a federally licensed seller that will require a background check and an unlicensed seller that won’t. Not surprisingly, 80 percent of criminal inmates in a Department of Justice survey said they got their guns through private means – no background check necessary.

Even when background checks are performed, prohibited purchasers can slip through the cracks because the NICS instant criminal background check system is missing millions of relevant records due to insufficient reporting by state and federal agencies. For example, 19 states have submitted fewer than 100 mental health records to NICS, and only 9 of the 60 federal agencies listed in relevant FBI data have submitted any mental health records.

Congress should act quickly to fix the criminal background check system for gun sales by 1) getting the names of everyone who isn’t allowed to buy a gun into the background check system, and 2) providing a background check for every gun purchase, with limited exceptions. Over 90 percent of Americans agree with this policy.

there is a gaping hole in our laws that allow criminals and others to go to “private sellers” at gun shows, on the internet, and elsewhere to buy guns with no background check, no questions asked. Commonly referred to as the private sales loophole or “gun show loophole,” this failure in our public safety policy has allowed up to 40 percent of all gun transfers to take place without a background check.